Posted!

Join the Conversation

Pipelines beneath Straits of Mackinac getting pressure tests

Associated Press
Published 8:38 a.m. ET June 9, 2017

CLOSE

Sixteen sections of underwater oil and gas pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac were found unsupported on the Great Lakes bottom during 2003 inspections — spans of 140 feet or longer, well beyond state requirements for mooring the pipe.
Keith Matheny/Detroit Free Press

The Mackinac Bridge is visible from a marker near Enbridge Line 5 on the northern shore of the Straits of Mackinac.(Photo: Neil Blake, AP)

The Detroit News reports one test will happen Saturday on a pipeline that’s part of Line 5. The other pipeline will be tested later this month.

Officials with the Canadian company say the tests should put to rest concerns about the pipelines that were laid in 1953 and the need for additional safety reviews. Enbridge will pump sections of the line with water for the tests.

Line 5 carries about 23 million gallons of crude oil and liquid natural gas daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario. A nearly 5-mile-long section, divided into two lines, runs along the bottom of the straits area where Lakes Huron and Michigan converge.